While
doctors hand out Coumadin to our elderly citizens like candy, apparently
because they have no idea how to get someone’s sticky blood to
flow normally, patient’s livers were not briefed on the strategy
– an oversight that is likely to injure and speed the onset of
age-associated disease. A new article in the prestigious American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals just how vital vitamin
K function is to your health.

The
Coumadin vs. vitamin K issue is one pitting the mental midgets of Western
medicine against the innate wisdom of the human body.

There
are 16 known vitamin K dependent proteins. The researchers used knockout
mice (mice lacking one or another of these proteins) to determine which
vitamin K proteins were most important to survival.

They
found that the 5 vitamin K proteins relating to clotting were the most
important, as knocking them out caused death to the mice while still
in the embryonic phase of development.

Their
research showed that the liver regulates the distribution of vitamin
K to any of the 16 proteins, and does so on a basis of priority, giving
clotting function top priority.

When
Coumadin is taken it creates a vitamin K deficiency and the liver responds
by channeling available vitamin K to clotting protein function, at the
expense of other vitamin K dependent proteins.

The
net result is that other functions in the body that require vitamin
K are left without enough to function properly. This causes bone loss,
arterial calcification, and increased cancer risk. Vitamin K proteins
are also an integral part of the overall antioxidant network.

This
new research is backed by other studies that support the adverse long
term use of Coumadin. A study
published in 2006, which of course has been ignored, showed that
Coumadin use longer than 1 year increased the risk of bone fracture
by 25%.

In
the most recent study referenced above the scientists concluded that
“Coumadin patients may not receive sufficient vitamin K for optimal
function of vitamin K dependent proteins that are important to maintain
long-term health.” Therefore, long-term Coumadin use is not worth
the “benefit” for just about anyone.

Short-Term
Coumadin Toxicity

A
December 2007 study in the Annals
of Internal Medicine shows that Coumadin is the top drug landing
elderly Americans in the emergency room, accounting for 17.3% of all
adverse drug injuries. The drug is commonly given to elderly individuals
with atrial fibrillation and according to carefully crafted “studies”
may reduce their risk of stroke a paltry few percentage points.

Coumadin
is a cash cow for the prescribing physician, as it keeps patients coming
back to the office to have their clotting times tested to make sure
their artificially-produced clotting time is in a range deemed desirable
by the doctor. Most elderly individuals with atrial fibrillation are
in poor health in general, making this a difficult patient population
fraught with the risks inherent in multiple drug use.

Excessive
bleeding is the primary short-term side effect of Coumadin. It is not
surprising that you can buy Coumadin in the rat poison department at
Home Depot. A high dose is very effective at making animals bleed to
death. There is a fine line between a Home Depot dose and what doctors
prescribe. This means that if you are taking Coumadin and rupture a
blood vessel in your brain (say from high blood pressure) your body
may not be able to clot to save your life – as was the case with
former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Hemorrhage-related
strokes have quadrupled in the past decade, consistent with the
rise in expanded Coumadin use. The Coumadin/hemorrhage risk goes up
45 fold if the person is 80 or older. Also, if an elderly person on
Coumadin gets in a car accident and starts bleeding they may have great
trouble stopping – especially if the bleeding is internal.

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Most
discussions of drug benefits revolve around statistically concocted
benefits of the drug, often in hand-picked patient populations, as is
the case with Coumadin stroke benefit studies. The studies are funded
by drug companies, and if they don’t pan out or the statistics
can’t be manipulated in some way to look good then they are thrown
in the trash and never published. The benefits of drugs are never explained
in terms of how the drug changes the body into a healthier state and
solves the source of a problem – because drugs seldom ever do
this. Drugs are about symptom and number management, and trying to titrate
the poisons so they are not too toxic for something else that isn’t
supposed to be damaged (a near impossible task).

In
fact, the “wisdom” behind the common use of a drug is often
not accurate. Another new study shows that Coumadin is just as likely
to cause an increase in unstable plaque and actually increase
the risk for stroke!

The
researchers found out that mice with sticky blood were more likely to
form larger plaques, but the plaques were more stable and their circulatory
system actually expanded to accommodate the problem. When these mice
were given anti-coagulants then the plaques became smaller and highly
unstable, increasing the risk for stroke. The researchers say their
animal results confirm other human studies and are highly reflective
of what takes place in the human circulatory system.

Doctors
will blame any stoke happening to a person on Coumadin on their underlying
health condition. This study says that Coumadin could readily increase
the risk of stroke.

Patients
at Risk, Profits for Doctors and Big Pharma

The
FDA is useless is helping individuals understand the extreme risks of
this drug or in making drug companies perform follow-up safety testing
that prove safety. Drug companies have no interest in such studies,
as they would generally prove that their drugs shouldn’t be used
in any general way – drastically reducing sales.

Doctors
need to get their heads out of the sand. Much of Coumadin prescribing
is “cover-your-rear-end” medicine – giving it out
because if a person should have a stroke and they weren’t prescribed
Coumadin then the doctor is in a situation of legal liability (which
is utter nonsense and should not be the case). Coumadin also causes
regular repeat office visits to check clotting times via a blood draw,
which is a nice cash flow for the doctor as the office visit requires
little or no intelligence or time.

We
have a medical profession that thinks if they see an unnaturally-produced
clotting time on paper they have somehow reduced the risk of a clot-related
stroke. Such a conclusion is wishful thinking with a large case of denial.
It points out that the medical profession has little or no idea how
to make platelets healthier so they don’t stick together inappropriately,
something that is easy to do with dietary supplements, good stress management,
a proper diet, and a healthy lifestyle.

At
least 30,000 of their patients per year wind up in the emergency room
with bleeding-related problems. Even worse, at least that number ends
up with a Coumadin-produced hemorrhage stroke. And for those that survive
those odds, we now see that the long-term risks of Coumadin are extremely
detrimental to health. The use of Coumadin in general practice is an
example of why the American population is rapidly losing confidence
in Western medicine.

In
the current health care debate it is generally agreed that we need to
reduce the cost of health care so that more people can be covered with
truly needed care. The issue of the inept practice of medicine, based
on widely over-prescribing expensive and dangerous medications, is a
driving force at the source of the problem of runaway health care costs.
Doctor ineptitude is being given a free pass in the current debate so
as not to have doctor groups torpedo proposed changes.

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As
long as the flagrant abuse of health by doctors, based on various Big
Pharma con games, drug scams, and profit-driven procedures is allowed
to continue, there is no chance of controlling health care costs in
any meaningful way. A brainwashed population that thinks statins
should be in the water supply (along with fluoride) is a rather dangerous
place for any freedom-loving Americans that remain.

Byron
J. Richards, Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist, nationally-renowned
nutrition
expert, and founder of Wellness
Resources is a leader in advocating the value of dietary
supplements as a vital tool to maintain health. He is an outspoken
critic of government and Big Pharma efforts to deny access to natural
health products and has written extensively on the life-shortening and
health-damaging failures of the sickness
industry.

Most discussions
of drug benefits revolve around statistically concocted benefits of the
drug, often in hand-picked patient populations, as is the case with Coumadin
stroke benefit studies. The studies are funded by drug companies...